The new kingmaker in Israeli politics, Yair Lapid, is a telegenic former television journalist, actor and author who spent his early childhood in London.

Mr Lapid's late father, Joseph – also known as Tommy – was the London correspondent for the Israeli newspaper, Maariv, in the 1960s, working out of the Daily Telegraph's former Fleet Street headquarters.

In a bestselling book, Memories After My Death: The Story Of Joseph "Tommy" Lapid, Mr Lapid Jnr describes his father's professional exploits, including pushing through crowds at a Buckingham Palace diplomatic reception to shake hands with the Queen and attending Winston Churchill's funeral at St Paul's Cathedral.

It also relates his attempts to cover the rise of The Beatles by landing a coveted plane ticket for the band's first tour of America in 1964. The trip was scuppered by a terse message from an editor who wrote: "Who cares about four dirtbags from Liverpool? Stay in London!"

Yair was born a few weeks before his father was posted to London in January 1964. Nilly Richman, a spokesperson for Mr Lapid, confirmed that he lived in the city for three years.

Fluent in English, Mr Lapid is not uncritical of his father's former stamping ground. In 2007 he wrote a column attacking British academics who urged a boycott of Israel.

Mr Lapid Snr, a Holocaust survivor who died in 2008, presaged his son's political success by forming the liberal-secular Shinui party, which achieved a comparable breakthrough to Yesh Atid on Tuesday by winning 15 seats in a 2003 election and entering a coalition with the then Likud prime minister, Ariel Sharon.

The younger Mr Lapid, 49 – a father-of-three whose wife, Lihi, is a novelist – also adopted secular themes when he quit his job as a presenter with Israel's Channel 2 television station to form Yesh Atid in 2012.

Campaigning under the slogan, "We've Come To Change Things", Mr Lapid vowed at his maiden rally that "Everyone will serve the state". The pledge referred to his belief that the ultra-Orthodox Haredi community must integrate into mainstream Israeli society and perform obligations like military service, from which it is currently exempt.

Despite the secular emphasis, he is credited with putting together a diverse slate of elected candidates that include Shai Piron, a prominent rabbi and teacher in the religious Zionist movement, and Yaakov Peri, a former head of Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency.

He also sought to frame a political message addressing a wave of protests that struck Israel in the summer of 2011 over living costs and social exclusion, saying that young people should have access to affordable housing and that fuel costs should come down.

While saying his goal was to be in the government, Mr Lapid has stressed that his main conditions are a programme for Haredi Jews to join the army and the workforce, and restarting negotiations with the Palestinians. He has also suggested he would only join if another centre-left party were present, saying he would not be a "fig-leaf" for a Right-wing ultra-Orthodox government.

His diplomatic agenda, unveiled recently in the West Bank settlement of Ariel, calls for negotiations with the Palestinians but rejects the right of return for Palestinian refugees. It also declares that Jerusalem will remain Israel's undivided capital.

"We must not lose the State of Israel's Jewish majority. ... Without an agreement [with the Palestinians], Israel's Jewish and Zionist identity is in danger," Mr Lapid said on Tuesday.